Boulter

Britain’s Katie Boulter suffered a first-round defeat to Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open.

Boulter, 29, went down 7-6 7-6 on clay to world number 87 Ruse, who will now face Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska or American Ann Li in the last 16.

Boulter lost her first two service games in the opening set but twice broke before she was edged out in a tie-break.

The British number three broke Ruse’s serve for a third time to take an early advantage in the second set but her opponent immediately responded in a see-saw encounter.

Boulter staved off match point at 6-5 down to force another tie-break, but Ruse claimed two mini breaks to move 5-2 ahead before serving out to seal her win.

World number 62 Boulter won the fourth WTA Tour title of her career at the Ostrava Open in February and reached the last eight at the Merida Open in Mexico.

However, she did not make it past the second and third rounds respectively at Indian Wells and the Miami Open prior to this loss.

Muchova broke 29-year-old Boulter’s serve twice in the first set and only needed one more in the second set to go 6-5 ahead before she wrapped up the victory.

Elsewhere, British number four Fran Jones also exited the tournament, retiring in the second set of her match with American Jessica Pegula through illness.

Jones, 25, had knocked out Venus Williams in the first round despite feeling under the weather but struggled against Pegula.

Pegula had won the first set 6-1 and despite a medical timeout Jones, who was seen coughing several times during the match, decided at 3-0 down in the second set she was not well enough to continue.

“I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to play Venus, but it’s a whole different ball game playing Jess,” Jones said.

“You need to be 10 out of 10 to compete against her and I’m probably a four out of 10 today. If I’m not able to give my everything out there, I don’t see the point when I’m already battling my general fitness as it is.”